Arcadi Espada’s “Victorian Albert” museum conjures a delightful vision of an old building full of cuddly Alberts rather than the Touch Me trendiness that I so adore. (No Berts in the V&A: as the Queen said, “This will not change our way of life.”))
David de Ugarte writes that “Al-Qaeda is the first distributed armed organisation that is open and based on open-access technology, ideology and gear.” The rest is debatable, but the word “first” is wrong. What about all those networks of early-warning hill-top beacons in Scandinavia 1000 years ago, used to rouse people with home-made weapons and…
“Fixed book prices are sacrosanct for this government,” said (via David Millán) socialist minister of culture, Carmen Calvo, after a meeting with booksellers, who are pissed off about discounts offered by larger, more efficient operators under legislation introduced by the previous government. Lots of subsidy for the industry gets laundered through the education system, but,…
Livingstone doesn’t travel well, but I thought this was really good. Galloway is deranged and has no place in London, but even he doesn’t go as far as the charming anti-whateverist who told me last night that, in her carefully considered opinion, 9/11 would never have happened had it not been for the invasion of…
Lots of people use “beacuase” instead of “because”, but I don’t think anyone writes “Uase” instead of “Oz”. (I’m having a bit of a Dr Heckle and Mr Jibe day, and mistakenly read this headline as “Anagram hits out at Tory election plans”, which seemed like an interesting tech rehash of traditional rapid response strategies…
Wordlab notes that Marie Antoinette didn’t really invite her subjects to storm the pâtisserie. I could, however, imagine her saying “Qu’ils mangent de la caque” (cf HistoricAL), were it not that Vulgum says it was derived later, by Céline, from caquer/caguer, to shit. Cognates turn up in other Romance dialects, as do they in Dutch.…
There’s a good piece today by Arcadi Espada on the conflict of interests that prevents press and politicians commenting on the call by Oriol Malló in the state-financed Avui for the extermination of those opposed to the nationalist-socialist status quo. I’ll be surprised if the courts manage any better.
The Telegraph is publishing ((free) login required) the wartime recollections of WF Deedes, who passed through Hengelo and, one assumes, Oldenzaal on his way to Germany with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1944-5.